Speaker 1: Everyone's going wild over NFTs. Netflix cracks down on sharing,
Speaker 1: using Siri to find the best gas prices. Plus your
Speaker 1: tech questions answered, What's going on? I'm Rich Tomorrow and
Speaker 1: this is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk
Speaker 1: about the tech stuff I think you should know about.
Speaker 1: It's also the place where I answer the questions you
Speaker 1: send me. I'm the tech reporter at KTLA Channel five
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: You may also find me on.
Speaker 1: Other stations around the US. So the company that owns
Speaker 1: KTLA also has like one hundred something stations across the nation.
Speaker 2: So I get a lot of emails.
Speaker 1: These days or texts and tweets or whatever from people saying, oh,
Speaker 1: I saw you in Hawaii, I saw you in New Mexico,
Speaker 1: saw you in.
Speaker 2: I don't know wherever. So it's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: So if you found me in one of those places,
Speaker 1: thank you for tuning in and listening. And what a
Speaker 1: week it's been in Los Angeles, because well, it's snowed
Speaker 1: in my backyard. In my backyard, there was well maybe
Speaker 1: it wasn't snow, but it was definitely something that resembled snow,
Speaker 1: and I guess it was technically hal or. Someone told
Speaker 1: me it was something called gropple. I don't know. But
Speaker 1: the point is when your kid is in the other
Speaker 1: room distance learning, and you're in your office and you
Speaker 1: hear wild screaming and you run over there to see
Speaker 1: what happened, and you'll look outside the back door and
Speaker 1: it's just totally a winter wonderland. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: It was pretty awesome. So I don't think I've ever
Speaker 1: seen that happen in Los Angeles ever, now, given we
Speaker 1: have the mountains here, and so of course if you're
Speaker 1: in the mountains, they're very familiar with snow and hail
Speaker 1: and sleet and all that stuff. But when you just
Speaker 1: of in like La proper like I do, and it's
Speaker 1: coming down in your backyard, that's pretty wild. So I
Speaker 1: got a cool video on my Instagram of me kind
Speaker 1: of picking up whatever this is.
Speaker 2: Whatever this was, you.
Speaker 1: Know, snow, hail, sleet, gropple, whatever it was. I picked
Speaker 1: it up and it felt pretty amazing for a minute.
Speaker 1: And then, by the way, it all melted in about
Speaker 1: a half an hour to an hour afterwards, So that
Speaker 1: generally happens. But it's also been raining in La so
Speaker 1: it's been kind of wild weather. Here in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and probably across the nation. I know, you know, there's
Speaker 1: been a snowstorms and this and that, so hopefully you're
Speaker 1: good where you are. But let's get to the first
Speaker 1: item of business here. Tea Mobile is stepping up targeting advertising.
Speaker 2: This is the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 1: They first noticed this, but they sent an email or
Speaker 1: I guess they just updated their privacy policy. I don't
Speaker 1: know how they found this, but they said, starting April
Speaker 1: twenty sixth, Tea Mobile subscribers will basically have whatever they
Speaker 1: do on their phone tracked by Team Mobile. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess that's always been going on, but now they're
Speaker 1: going to use that information to target advertising. So they're
Speaker 1: not just you know, these companies don't just overtly share
Speaker 1: your information. But what they do is they build a database.
Speaker 1: So let's say I'm an advertiser and I want to
Speaker 1: sell you socks, and so I go on to the
Speaker 1: T mobile, you know, advertising back end, and I say,
Speaker 1: I want to target everyone who has looked up socks
Speaker 1: or any sort of you know, undergarments in the last
Speaker 1: six months, and boom, now you see my ad inserted
Speaker 1: on any of those pages or wherever you go.
Speaker 2: Whatever.
Speaker 1: However, T Mobile does ads. I don't know, but you know,
Speaker 1: so you would see my ad in all those places.
Speaker 1: So historically I guess they didn't really do this, but
Speaker 1: you know, the reality is TEA Mobile said, you know,
Speaker 1: we've heard they told the Wall Street Journal, We've heard
Speaker 1: many say they prefer more relevant ads. So we're defaulting
Speaker 1: to this setting. So this is a default for sixty
Speaker 1: million people. And what does that do?
Speaker 2: That just turns off on a lot of money.
Speaker 1: It's like a money spigot that T Mobile is turning
Speaker 1: on because guess what, no matter what you use, unless
Speaker 1: you're on a VPN, you know, if you're incognito mode
Speaker 1: or you know, whatever browser you're using, pretty much a
Speaker 1: lot of these times, you're still your ISP still gets
Speaker 1: to see what you're doing. And so a T Mobile
Speaker 1: in this case is the ISP Internet service provider. They're
Speaker 1: the ones that actually serve up the website on the
Speaker 1: back end using their data and your data plan if
Speaker 1: you're not on your WiFi, and so they see kind
Speaker 1: of where you're going and they say, okay, this person
Speaker 1: likes scooters, they like tropical vacations, they like socks. And
Speaker 1: so now when those companies come to target them boom.
Speaker 2: They can do that.
Speaker 1: So if you don't like this idea, you can actually
Speaker 1: opt out, and the way you do it is that
Speaker 1: you go into the T mobile app, or you can
Speaker 1: go there's a sprint way to opt out and a
Speaker 1: metro way to opt out. I put the instructions for
Speaker 1: T Mobile. I'll put them in the in the notes
Speaker 1: because I shared this street Journal article. But they're apparently paywalled,
Speaker 1: so you can't really just see these instructions that they
Speaker 1: put on there. But I'll put the instructions. T Mobile
Speaker 1: actually put out a YouTube video with instructions on how
Speaker 1: to do it. So if you want to opt out,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like one of those people that I
Speaker 1: would rather see an ad that's targeted than not, I guess,
Speaker 1: but I also see why you know this is I
Speaker 1: call these those follow me ads, the ads that just
Speaker 1: follow you from place to place to place. So a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff, well this may not be that,
Speaker 1: but anyway, the point is, you know, if you don't
Speaker 1: like your information sliced and diced and shared then or targeted,
Speaker 1: then you probably want to opt out of this.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: T Mobile does say that your your personal identity is
Speaker 1: not linked to the data that you have. Right, so
Speaker 1: all your they don't know you as like Rich DeMuro
Speaker 1: that likes socks. It's just this person likes socks, and
Speaker 1: so you should target your ads towards this person. But
Speaker 1: the reality is, we know, over and over, I've heard
Speaker 1: this and seen this from so many people that they
Speaker 1: don't just use one database per se. A lot of
Speaker 1: times these very advanced advertising systems will merge various databases.
Speaker 1: So just because T Mobile doesn't hand over your ID,
Speaker 1: believe me, there's other ways for them to get it.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, they pretty much
Speaker 1: know everything they need to know about you. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get to the first Uh is this a question?
Speaker 1: This looks like some feedback? All right, hey, Rich, just
Speaker 1: some simple feedback regarding your product recommendations. The Apple home
Speaker 1: Pod Mini, recommended so highly, has turned out to be
Speaker 1: a bust. The sound quality pales in comparison to the
Speaker 1: JBL Flip five. The Mini has become unreliable by not
Speaker 1: responding to touch or voice command for Siri.
Speaker 2: That's weird.
Speaker 1: We're trying to return the unit, but Apple insists it's
Speaker 1: inspected by their Genius bar. First, I previously purchased the
Speaker 1: JBL Flip five speaker for our sun It has rechargeable batteries,
Speaker 1: it's completely portable, the volume is better. Let's see on
Speaker 1: circles around the Apple home Pod Mini, all for the
Speaker 1: same price.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Also, the Wise products are starting out to be a
Speaker 1: bust too. If you want further details, let me know.
Speaker 1: The cameras and sensors keep going offline. The batteries don't last.
Speaker 1: When I replace the batteries, the sensors and motion sensors
Speaker 1: still state the batteries need replacement. I can't trust Wise
Speaker 1: as a security product because of these issues. Jim in
Speaker 1: Orange County, Well, Jim, uh yeah, Well look, I mean
Speaker 1: here's the deal.
Speaker 2: And I say this over and over.
Speaker 1: Just because I say to get something does not mean
Speaker 1: that it is the end all.
Speaker 2: You just go out and run out and buy it.
Speaker 1: Like I am just one opinion in a sea of
Speaker 1: many opinions, and with the Internet, there are so many
Speaker 1: opinions out there. So my opinion is that the old
Speaker 1: Apple HomePod Mini is amazing, and I still think it's amazing,
Speaker 1: And yeah, are there things that can be improved, of course,
Speaker 1: like any first generation product or any product in general,
Speaker 1: but for the ninety nine dollars that I you see
Speaker 1: this thing as I think it's amazing as an iPhone companion.
Speaker 1: And yes, the JBL Flip five is a totally different product.
Speaker 1: That's a wireless, portable Bluetooth speaker. So that's that's something
Speaker 1: that's totally different than what the HomePod Mini is. The
Speaker 1: HomePod Mini is, you know, a smart home device. It
Speaker 1: connects you to the Apple ecosystem. It sounds good for
Speaker 1: the size. Yes, you have to keep it plugged into
Speaker 1: the wall, but that's what it is. It's a it's
Speaker 1: part of a you can group them, which I don't
Speaker 1: believe you could do with the Flip five. So you know,
Speaker 1: the reality is if it didn't work out for you,
Speaker 1: I'm totally fine with that. Like clearly I'm O for
Speaker 1: two with my recommendations for you, but it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that they are bad recommendations. I've gotten many emails from
Speaker 1: people saying how impressed they are with the HomePod Mini.
Speaker 1: I personally still think it's amazing. I've bought them for
Speaker 1: my sister. She thinks it's amazing. The wisecam I mean,
Speaker 1: I haven't gotten a lot of negative feedback about the Wyscam.
Speaker 1: In fact, I would say ninety nine percent of tech
Speaker 1: reviewers love the wise products, myself included. And so you know,
Speaker 1: specifically with the outdoor cam, yes, the battery does run down.
Speaker 1: It could run down very fast depending on how often
Speaker 1: it's being activated. Now, I will tell you that I
Speaker 1: have been testing a device from Wasserman It's called or
Speaker 1: sorry Wasserstein Wasserstein Home and this has been amazing for
Speaker 1: the wise Cam outdoor. It is fantastic. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get it into a segment on KTLA, but it's just
Speaker 1: one of these things where I can't do a full
Speaker 1: segment on this thing. But it's really cool and I
Speaker 1: love it, so I just have to, you know, work
Speaker 1: it into like a roundup or something. But I will
Speaker 1: be featuring it because I just think it really extends
Speaker 1: the use of this outdoor camera. And it's the Wasserstein
Speaker 1: solar panel and you plug it into the Wisecam outdoor
Speaker 1: and you put it in a sunny spot and boom,
Speaker 1: you never have to charge your wys cam ever. Again,
Speaker 1: I've been using this now for probably a month and
Speaker 1: I have not had to charge my camera at all.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you right now, my backyard camera
Speaker 1: is at one hundred percent and it's been there for month,
Speaker 1: for a month now, and so I really really like
Speaker 1: this thing. I think for thirty six ninety nine, normally
Speaker 1: forty five. It's on sale right now. Apparently it is
Speaker 1: just one of those things that is like a no brainer.
Speaker 1: And if you look around your neighborhood, this is not
Speaker 1: a new idea. You see a lot of these things.
Speaker 1: Like it's basically a flat panel that you aim on
Speaker 1: your roof towards the sky. It has it must have
Speaker 1: some sort of battery inside, because when I first got it,
Speaker 1: it didn't work. I told the company, I said, this
Speaker 1: thing doesn't even work, and they said, well, you have
Speaker 1: to keep it out in the sun for ten hours
Speaker 1: charge your Okay, So you keep it out in the
Speaker 1: sun for ten hours without plugging it into the camera,
Speaker 1: then you charge your camera fully to one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: and then you plug it in, You keep it in
Speaker 1: the sun, and boom, your camera will stay one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: At least that's been my experience. I'll link this up
Speaker 2: in the.
Speaker 1: Notes, but I got to say that really changed the
Speaker 1: game for me with this wisecamout door and So, Jim,
Speaker 1: as much as I know you don't trust wise, I
Speaker 1: think they are a fantastic products. The thing that I've
Speaker 1: gotten the feedback on the most has been the shipping
Speaker 1: and kind of like people ordering things and it's taken
Speaker 1: a while to get But other than that, I mean,
Speaker 1: the actual cameras are are pretty phenomenal for the price
Speaker 1: that these things charge. So Jim, thanks for the feedback.
Speaker 1: I always welcome feedback, good or bad, and believe me,
Speaker 1: I get a lot of it. And you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's all good, all right. So everyone is going
Speaker 1: wild over these things called NFTs, and it's just it's
Speaker 1: such like it's one of these things where it's so
Speaker 1: weird how you see something once and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it's just like a flood. It's like it arrives. Like
Speaker 1: everything is now referencing an NFT on the internet.
Speaker 2: So what is an NFT. I broke it down.
Speaker 1: I talked to someone that's an expert and I, you know,
Speaker 1: try to explain this on KTLA in my segment and
Speaker 1: it's really tough because I don't even really understand it.
Speaker 1: But the reality is NFT stands for non fungible Token
Speaker 1: and if you want to think of these in this
Speaker 1: simplest terms, it's basically a collectible like a beanie baby
Speaker 1: or a baseball card, but it only exists online. And
Speaker 1: so a lot of these things that people have been
Speaker 1: selling have been, you know, a piece of digital art
Speaker 1: or you can do anything as an NFT anything like
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have to be digital. But for the
Speaker 1: terms of me explaining this, I will keep it digital.
Speaker 1: But theoretically you could extend it to something that's physical
Speaker 1: as well. But let's say you have the Mona Lisa.
Speaker 1: There are many Mona Lisa paintings or recreations around the world,
Speaker 1: you know, copies, but there's only one. So that one
Speaker 1: Mona Lisa is is a collectible. It's a valuable item
Speaker 1: that is non fungible. Right, you can't make another one
Speaker 1: of them, but a copy if you put on a
Speaker 1: T shirt that's fungible, it's like, you know, you can
Speaker 1: make a million of them. So that's kind of the
Speaker 1: base thing, is that there can only be one and
Speaker 1: then one. Once you have this one thing, you sell
Speaker 1: it and it's it's a token and it's part of
Speaker 1: the blockchain, and so you say this is a sign
Speaker 1: to you, and so it really comes down to scarcity.
Speaker 1: So a couple examples. I gave a rare original arcade game,
Speaker 1: you know, like an arcade console is non fungible, you
Speaker 1: can't make another one. So when I buy that, it's
Speaker 1: valuable because it's like a pac Man original in my
Speaker 1: house right. A gaming chip from a casino non fungible.
Speaker 1: That's let's say the casino is gone, like it's imploded
Speaker 1: or whatever. You know, that's non fungible because it's a
Speaker 1: collector's item. A twenty dollars bill, Now this is interesting.
Speaker 1: A twenty dollars bill is fungible and non fungible. So
Speaker 1: it's fungible because if I lent you twenty dollars and
Speaker 1: you paid me back, I wouldn't I wouldn't expect to
Speaker 1: get the same exact twenty dollars bill back that I
Speaker 1: gave you, So that means it's fungible. But let's say
Speaker 1: I did expect it back, because every twenty dollars bill
Speaker 1: has a serial number on it that's non fungible. Like
Speaker 1: if I was like, no, you got to give me
Speaker 1: the exact same twenty back in a week, which nobody
Speaker 1: would ever say that would be non fungible. So if
Speaker 1: you understand the difference between fungible and non fungible, you
Speaker 1: sort of understand NFTs.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: People have been spending a lot of money on these NFTs.
Speaker 1: That's because you buy them with cryptocurrency, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people have these big cryptocurrency balances because that's gone up.
Speaker 1: Open c is one of the big online marketplaces for NFTs,
Speaker 1: and you know, some people are using them as an investment.
Speaker 1: Some people are using them as like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: really cool, like the Kings of Leon, you know, put
Speaker 1: an album out as an NFT.
Speaker 2: You buy it, it's yours, and you know you love.
Speaker 1: It because it's a collectible and it's like the first
Speaker 1: time they've done it, and it's really cool to you.
Speaker 1: But other people are just speculating. Let's see the other
Speaker 1: thing to know about NFTs, And this is what I
Speaker 1: thought was the most interesting part of n fts compared
Speaker 1: to say a let's say you bought a one of
Speaker 1: a kind painting in real life from someone, right, Well,
Speaker 1: when you go to sell that, you have to have
Speaker 1: some sort of leather letter of authenticity or you know,
Speaker 1: an auction house would verify that that's a unique item.
Speaker 1: But with NFTs, what's really interesting is that they are
Speaker 1: ownership and authenticity is public and provable thanks to the blockchain.
Speaker 1: And that's the same blockchain that powers cryptocurrency. It's the
Speaker 1: same idea that cryptocurrency is all. You know, it's all verifiable, right,
Speaker 1: Like what you own is verified by Math.
Speaker 2: It doesn't.
Speaker 1: You don't have to go to Chase Bank and say, hey,
Speaker 1: do I have a one hundred dollars in cryptocurrency? No,
Speaker 1: like anyone can verify through Math that you own that
Speaker 1: money and it's yours and you can transfer it to
Speaker 1: someone else. Same thing with NFTs. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm doing a good job of explaining this. Hopefully
Speaker 1: it makes a little sense and you get a little
Speaker 1: idea of what people are going wild over. But the
Speaker 1: easiest way to think about it is it's just something
Speaker 1: that exists in digital form and you buy it with bitcoin,
Speaker 1: and it's a collector's item and it's one of a kind,
Speaker 1: and even though it could be replicated, you the original
Speaker 1: is verifiable thanks to that blockchain technology.
Speaker 2: So there you have it.
Speaker 1: Richard, good morning. Have you ever reviewed the photostick mobile
Speaker 1: or Infinite Cloud, which is a better bite, do you
Speaker 1: recommend something else? Just want to copy photos to free
Speaker 1: up space, to take up more or to take more?
Speaker 1: Thanks in Advanced Richard sent for my iPhone.
Speaker 2: Okay, so, if.
Speaker 1: You've listened to this podcast for a while, I've gotten
Speaker 1: this question over and over and over, and I got
Speaker 1: to hand it to Photostick Mobile and Infinity Cloud. You
Speaker 1: really have done a good job of marketing your products.
Speaker 1: But when I go to your websites, that's when the
Speaker 1: party is over, because these websites are something that I
Speaker 1: would not really purchase from because they are you know. Actually,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the Infinity Cloud one and you know this,
Speaker 1: it doesn't look as scammy as I thought. So, but
Speaker 1: here's the thing, Ah, this is kind of weird. It
Speaker 1: only has four hundred and twenty seven ratings on their app.
Speaker 2: That's kind of weird. That's not very much. Hmm.
Speaker 1: Well, at any rate, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: order one of these things and I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: see exactly how they work because I keep poopooing them
Speaker 1: and I shouldn't poopoo them as much. I should really
Speaker 1: see how they work and really try it for myself.
Speaker 1: So with that said, generally, I don't recommend these because
Speaker 1: you know this, this Infinity cloud actually doesn't look that bad,
Speaker 1: but I have I need to test it out. But
Speaker 1: the thing that I have tested and I do recommend
Speaker 1: is the sand Disc I expand sand Disc I x
Speaker 1: P A N D and you plug this little flask
Speaker 1: drive into your iPhone, you download this software.
Speaker 2: It's got an app.
Speaker 1: It'll even prompt you to download the software and boom,
Speaker 1: all your photos are backed up and videos to this
Speaker 1: little flask drive and then you can erase them off
Speaker 1: your phone and have more more storage.
Speaker 2: Now, I would not.
Speaker 1: Recommend doing that unless you have these also in a
Speaker 1: different place, because if you ever lost this flash drive, boom,
Speaker 1: all your pictures are gone, so you need to also
Speaker 1: back them up. I would recommend something like Google Photos
Speaker 1: or Amazon Photos, whatever you want, get them somewhere else
Speaker 1: and get them backed up. It's getting tougher and tougher
Speaker 1: to find free cloud storage these days, so you know
Speaker 1: that's the main trick here is that everyone's starting to
Speaker 1: kind of turn that little clamp.
Speaker 2: A little bit tighter. Right, It's like a little vice
Speaker 2: gript It's like we're gonna squeeze just a little bit
Speaker 2: of money out of you to store your photos.
Speaker 1: Before it was all free and amazing Google Google Photos,
Speaker 1: you still get fifteen gigs of storage. On iCloud you
Speaker 1: get five gigs, which most people power through in about
Speaker 1: one backup. And then on Amazon Photos if you're a
Speaker 1: Prime member, you get unlimited storage for your photos, but
Speaker 1: they only give you five. I think it's five gigs
Speaker 1: of storage for your videos, which doesn't really get you
Speaker 1: very far. And I like the idea of one of
Speaker 1: these little drives to you know, offload some pictures, but honestly,
Speaker 1: like I think it's just better in the cloud, Like
Speaker 1: why go through this whole process of of putting it
Speaker 1: on this thing that can like break or get lost
Speaker 1: or stolen or anything, when you know, put it in
Speaker 1: the cloud and you have a much better chance of
Speaker 1: it of it lasting because you know, the cloud is
Speaker 1: the cloud.
Speaker 2: So that's my advice.
Speaker 1: I will try to get one of these things, either
Speaker 1: one or both in the Photostick Mobile or the Infinity
Speaker 1: Cloud to really test them out and see maybe they're
Speaker 1: not so bad. But again, I think the cloud is
Speaker 1: a better place to do this. I know it costs
Speaker 1: a little bit more, but I just think it's a
Speaker 1: more secure way of doing it.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 1: But if you want to go with one of these things,
Speaker 1: I would say in the meantime, check out the sand
Speaker 1: disc I expand all right, I was just in Santa
Speaker 1: Barbara yesterday.
Speaker 2: My my, my.
Speaker 1: What a beautiful place. What a beautiful place, and it
Speaker 1: was raining a little bit. I got this delicious pizza
Speaker 1: that I always get when I'm there from this place
Speaker 1: called Lucky Penny. If you want to see it, check
Speaker 1: out my Instagram at rich On Tech. Don't do it
Speaker 1: if you're hungry, because you will want to get this pizza.
Speaker 2: It's so so delicious.
Speaker 1: But anyway I say this, I was up there for
Speaker 1: an unrelated shoot yesterday. But Sonos is headquartered in Santa Barbara,
Speaker 1: and they came out with a brand new product called
Speaker 1: the Sons Rome and this is their Bluetooth speaker that's
Speaker 1: totally portable. And what I love about this speaker, even
Speaker 1: though I've not tested it yet, is that it is
Speaker 1: a Bluetooth speaker, which is portable, but it also links
Speaker 1: into your Sons system at home. So this is a
Speaker 1: really cool speaker that you can keep on your desk
Speaker 1: in your office or in your kids room, and then
Speaker 1: when you head out to the beach or on a vacation,
Speaker 1: you can take this Sonos Rome. So I'll definitely be
Speaker 1: getting this speaker. It's one hundred and sixty nine dollars.
Speaker 1: It's April twentieth when it's available, and I got to say,
Speaker 1: even though I haven't tested it, I have very high
Speaker 1: hopes because I bought the sons Move during the pandemic
Speaker 1: and this is kind of their big, big portable speaker
Speaker 1: and it does the same thing pretty much as the Rome,
Speaker 1: except it's bigger, so it has Bluetooth, also connects to
Speaker 1: your speakers. It comes with the wireless charging DOC or actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess it is wireless. I mean you plug it in,
Speaker 1: but it's a DOC and I love it. I love, love,
Speaker 1: love the Move. Every time we're outside in the patio,
Speaker 1: you know, with friends, family, whatever. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: far and few between these days, but you know, during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, just hanging out outside in the backyard, which
Speaker 1: we did a lot, we would just take out the
Speaker 1: Move and it was so amazing because I used to
Speaker 1: have a Sonos plugged in in the backyard and of
Speaker 1: course when it rained, I'd remember to like bring it inside.
Speaker 1: The speaker got all beat up because it's just being outside.
Speaker 1: But the move it's like, oh brilliant. You just bring
Speaker 1: it outside when you need it, and you move it
Speaker 1: back inside when you don't.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's why it's called the move anyway. So that's
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars. But this Sono's Rome is kind of
Speaker 1: the same thing for one hundred and sixty nine.
Speaker 2: And yes, this is expensive.
Speaker 1: As far as Bluetooth speakers go, but if you have
Speaker 1: a Sonos system at home, it is well worth it.
Speaker 1: And clearly you're spending a little bit more than the
Speaker 1: average bear on your speakers at home anyway, if you
Speaker 1: have a Sonos and so this is going to be
Speaker 1: a price point that.
Speaker 2: Is pretty good.
Speaker 1: Let's see what features does this have. It's got a
Speaker 1: feature called Soundswap, where you can press and play uh
Speaker 1: hold the play pause button on the speaker to switch
Speaker 1: the music to the nearest speaker on your Sonos system,
Speaker 1: making it easy to move music from room to room.
Speaker 1: That's kind of kind of cool. It also has unlock.
Speaker 1: It unlocks Bluetooth streaming for your whole system, so if
Speaker 1: you're streaming Bluetooth to this Move or the Rome rather,
Speaker 1: then you can expand that exact same Bluetooth stream to
Speaker 1: all of your speakers, something I don't think has been
Speaker 1: available yet on Maybe I could do that with the Move.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I've never tried it. To me, I
Speaker 1: would just use airplay anyway. But you know if you're
Speaker 1: using Bluetooth that you know it's good for Android as well.
Speaker 1: Uh you know you know that Sonos works with over
Speaker 1: one hundred streaming services. I call them the Switzerland of
Speaker 1: streaming because it just works with everything on mine. I've
Speaker 1: got like Apple Music linked up, I've got iHeartRadio linked up.
Speaker 1: I've got Serious XM linked up, I've got YouTube music
Speaker 1: link up. I think that's it and I just love it.
Speaker 1: I can't say enough for for Sonos. It's IP sixty
Speaker 1: seven resistant, so dust and waterproof, which is really cool
Speaker 1: for bringing it to the beach if you live near
Speaker 1: one of those, or camping or whatever. Now here's how
Speaker 1: it charges. It has a custom magnetic wireless charger from
Speaker 1: Sonos that is sold separately. So that to me means well,
Speaker 1: this could have been two hundred dollars if they kept
Speaker 1: it in the box. But they make you purchase that later.
Speaker 1: But it works with any Chi wireless charger, and then
Speaker 1: also it has a USBC cable in the box. Would
Speaker 1: have been nice if they had this on a you know,
Speaker 1: if the magnetic wireless charger came with it.
Speaker 2: But I get it.
Speaker 1: They wanted that price point, and not everyone wants the
Speaker 1: wireless charging anyway, so you know, they figured make the
Speaker 1: price a little bit more appealing and you know, leave
Speaker 1: some things out of the box again. April twentieth, one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty nine dollars the sons Roam. If you
Speaker 1: have a Sonos system and you know you're eyeing that move.
Speaker 2: But it was just a little bit too pricey.
Speaker 1: I think the rom is gonna be a really, really
Speaker 1: exciting addition to the sound system.
Speaker 2: Are right?
Speaker 1: Next question? Paul says, Hey, Rich, please help. With all
Speaker 1: the technology out there, I still can't figure out how
Speaker 1: to send a video that's more than five seconds long
Speaker 1: in a text. I have the one plus seventy Android.
Speaker 1: Are there any ways to send a video that's longer
Speaker 1: than a few seconds in a text? I'm familiar with dropbox,
Speaker 1: but I'd rather insert it in a text. Are there
Speaker 1: any androids out there that will do that. Thank you, Rich.
Speaker 1: I love your segments. Every morning, Paul sent outlook for Android.
Speaker 2: Paul.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, SMS and video does not mix. So
Speaker 1: when standard texting was invented, it just didn't have the
Speaker 1: idea of sending a video through that little tiny pipeline.
Speaker 1: And so, yes, you can send a video through text,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna look like horrible garbage on the other side.
Speaker 1: And I remember my mom sent me a text with
Speaker 1: some video of snow that happened in her backyard, and
Speaker 1: it was just so sad watching it.
Speaker 2: Because she's on an Android.
Speaker 1: I get her a Google Pixel every maybe every other year,
Speaker 1: and she loves it. She doesn't want to switch to iPhone,
Speaker 1: so I keep her on the Pixel and she really
Speaker 1: enjoys it and she loves her pictures. And it's simple
Speaker 1: and it works. I can lock down the home screen.
Speaker 1: She you know, she doesn't use a lot of apps.
Speaker 1: But you know, she went to send me this video
Speaker 1: a couple years ago and it was just so terrible,
Speaker 1: and I felt I was just so sad because I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, here's my mom. She did this whole
Speaker 1: thing and it just looks like garbled. You know, it's
Speaker 1: so garbled, So Paul, that's what you're experiencing. And you
Speaker 1: know on I message, you know anyone iphoned iPhone videos
Speaker 1: look amazing because guess what Apple is sort of bypassing
Speaker 1: the standard text messaging even though it seems like it's
Speaker 1: a text message, it's going through their proprietary I message system.
Speaker 1: On Android, we have that in a way, but not
Speaker 1: necessarily supported everywhere. So a couple things you do. Number one,
Speaker 1: if you do have if you're on A one plus,
Speaker 1: I think their standard messaging app is Google Messages, so
Speaker 1: I would check to see if you're using that, and
Speaker 1: then it depends on your carrier. I think all of
Speaker 1: them at this point have instituted what's called chat, which
Speaker 1: is RCS. I know it gets a little complicated, but
Speaker 1: basically all the.
Speaker 2: Maw do I explain this.
Speaker 1: There is a standard for text messaging, next generation text
Speaker 1: messaging that does support large videos, large files. It's called RCS,
Speaker 1: and you can go into your messenger. I think they
Speaker 1: renamed it chat, and so you can go into your
Speaker 1: Messenger settings and make sure that chat is turned on.
Speaker 1: But that's only for sending it to another person that
Speaker 1: is also using the Google Messages app. And also has
Speaker 1: chat turned on, which means ninety nine percent of the
Speaker 1: time it's probably not gonna work in a beautiful way.
Speaker 1: So where does that leave me? If you can do
Speaker 1: all that, great, The other way to do it is just, honestly,
Speaker 1: you got to get them to download an app to
Speaker 1: send videos, which I would recommend either Facebook, Messenger, or
Speaker 1: you can use something like Telegram, but or WhatsApp.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would.
Speaker 1: Probably just get you know, whoever you're texting this back
Speaker 1: and forth with. I would get them to you know,
Speaker 1: or use you know, something like Instagram. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just you gotta use something to just, you know, make
Speaker 1: life a little bit easier. The whole chat thing, you know,
Speaker 1: the the rcs and the and the sms, it's just
Speaker 1: it's just too like on it's too unpredictable.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: The person on the other end may have an iPhone,
Speaker 1: they may have an Android that they're not using the
Speaker 1: same app for, so it's just much easier to just say, hey,
Speaker 1: look like I did with my family, we're all on Telegram. Look,
Speaker 1: let's all just get on Telegram and this is how
Speaker 1: we chat from now on. And it is worked out beautifully.
Speaker 1: It has been amazing and we have this nice long
Speaker 1: chat that goes on forever and all in there my
Speaker 1: whole family. It's amazing and it just works, and we
Speaker 1: send pictures, we send videos, we send texts, we send jokes,
Speaker 1: We chat in the morning and the night, all day,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's brilliant. So, Paul, that's what I'd
Speaker 1: recommend until the world figures out a cross platform way
Speaker 1: of getting iPhones, androids, androids and androids all to talk
Speaker 1: beautifully with SMS and send those large files.
Speaker 2: Until then, I think an app is your best bet.
Speaker 1: Now, real quick, if you just want to send one file,
Speaker 1: like if this is just a one time thing and
Speaker 1: you just need to send a large file, I would
Speaker 1: just use something like a dropbox or a Google Drive.
Speaker 1: Put it in there, generate a one time link, and
Speaker 1: then send it off that way. One other way you
Speaker 1: can do it is if you're on an Android and
Speaker 1: you're using Google Photos, there's a way to just generate
Speaker 1: a link for a video file. Just generate that link,
Speaker 1: send that link off, and boom, they'll get the nice,
Speaker 1: high quality video file. All right, next story here, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've noticed that gas prices are right near you,
Speaker 1: So I did a segment where I talked about you know,
Speaker 1: apps to find the best gas prices, and I hope.
Speaker 2: I didn't do this last week? Did I? No?
Speaker 1: I didn't, so uh, you know, I looked at gas Buddy,
Speaker 1: which is the most popular one, which it's okay, probably
Speaker 1: the most used, but the one that I actually kind
Speaker 1: of like is called gas Guru. And the reason I
Speaker 1: like this is because if you have an iPhone, you
Speaker 1: can set up a series shortcut to use gas Guru
Speaker 1: to find the cheapest gas near you in seconds. So
Speaker 1: you download this gas Guru app, you scroll all the
Speaker 1: way down and it says add to Siri. You hit
Speaker 1: that button and then you come up with a passphrase
Speaker 1: like a serie shortcut phrase, I use cheap gas. And
Speaker 1: then anytime you say h Siri, cheap gas, boom, this
Speaker 1: app opens up, It shows you the cheapest gas, you navigate,
Speaker 1: and you get on with life. And so I think
Speaker 1: it's really cool. In fact, after you have this app installed,
Speaker 1: every couple of days or every day, I don't know,
Speaker 1: you'll see just like a suggested series shortcut on your
Speaker 1: you know notifications that says, you know, find cheap gas.
Speaker 1: So you tap it and it brings you in there,
Speaker 1: so I really enjoy it. I've just been enjoying watching
Speaker 1: the gas prices go up and up and up, because
Speaker 1: I posted this picture to my Facebook page a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago about gas that was four dollars and
Speaker 1: ninety nine cents, and people went nuts, saying.
Speaker 2: Rich, how dare you? This is a lie? Gas is
Speaker 2: not that expensive? And sure enough gas has slowly but
Speaker 2: surely crept up in price.
Speaker 1: And I just keep laughing every time I see gas
Speaker 1: prices getting more and more expensive, because yeah, I'm paying
Speaker 1: them too. But the reality is I knew this was happening.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's why I posted that picture. So gas
Speaker 1: prices in California. You know, It's like, let's see so
Speaker 1: gas buddy. The thing I like about that, Oh I
Speaker 1: deleted already, but the gas guru anyway. So the point is,
Speaker 1: download one of these apps if you want to find
Speaker 1: cheap gas and.
Speaker 2: Go for it. All right, let's get to the next question. Rich.
Speaker 1: My wife and I love your reports. They're always destination
Speaker 1: viewing for both of us.
Speaker 2: Wow, thank you.
Speaker 1: We do not presently have a password manager app, and
Speaker 1: I wonder if you had a few that you could recommend,
Speaker 1: thank you, and.
Speaker 2: Stay safe, Joe.
Speaker 1: I think I talked about this on a previous show,
Speaker 1: but I will be honest. I was up in Santa
Speaker 1: Barbara to get a preview of the password management app
Speaker 1: called Bitwarden, and now a couple of weeks ago when
Speaker 1: I talked on the podcast about how last Pass is
Speaker 1: going to start basically charging if you want the full
Speaker 1: feature set for their password manager on March sixteenth, I believe,
Speaker 1: and so I was talking about alternatives and I mentioned
Speaker 1: things like, you know, you can still continue with last Pass,
Speaker 1: just pay a little bit to get all your features.
Speaker 2: I talked about.
Speaker 1: Dash Lane one password, and a lot of people tweeted
Speaker 1: me and said, hey, don't forget about bitwarden Bitwarden Bitwarden,
Speaker 1: which I'd never heard of, and so sure enough I
Speaker 1: looked into it and it has some really great features
Speaker 1: for free. And so if you don't have a password
Speaker 1: manager app and you're looking for something that is going
Speaker 1: to continue to be free. And I just talked to
Speaker 1: the CEO and I said, are you going to charge
Speaker 1: when you know people sign up? He said, no, this
Speaker 1: is We're going to be free. And so there are
Speaker 1: some things you don't get with free but honestly, for
Speaker 1: a majority of people, it's not going to be that
Speaker 1: big of a deal. The one thing that you probably
Speaker 1: that you might want with the free version that you
Speaker 1: don't get is passwords sharing. So if you want to
Speaker 1: be able to share passwords with a you know, a
Speaker 1: family member, you would have to upgrade. And now, by
Speaker 1: the way, upgrading is like ten dollars a year or
Speaker 1: like I think it's forty for the family plan. Whatever
Speaker 1: it is. It's very it's not that expensive. But you
Speaker 1: can totally get by with their free version. I was
Speaker 1: looking at it yesterday. It's it looks great. I mean,
Speaker 1: it really does so Bitwarden, I would recommend Joe. You
Speaker 1: mentioned a password manager app, which I always tell people
Speaker 1: if you're only in the Google ecosystm them, or if
Speaker 1: you're only an Apple, just use the built in Apple.
Speaker 1: It has an iCloud keychain, you can just use that.
Speaker 1: Or if you're on Android and Google it's I think
Speaker 1: they call it smart Password. Let's see what do they
Speaker 1: call They just call it Google Password Manager. So if
Speaker 1: you're on you know, if you use Chrome and use
Speaker 1: an Android, just use Google Password Manager and that can
Speaker 1: store all your stuff for free, and it's it's super easy,
Speaker 1: and it's you know, as long as you have a
Speaker 1: good password on your Google account, then you have a
Speaker 1: good you know, password manager there. But I would use
Speaker 1: one of these third party services like a bit warden,
Speaker 1: a dash lane or last pass or a one password.
Speaker 1: If you use various devices like a Mac computer and
Speaker 1: an Android phone, or an Android phone and a PC.
Speaker 1: You know, that way you can store these things across
Speaker 1: all your devices. And that's the functionality that last Pass
Speaker 1: used to have. But they are going to start charging
Speaker 1: for you have to choose do you want your passwords
Speaker 1: available on just mobile devices or on just you know,
Speaker 1: you have to choose one type of device, which is
Speaker 1: gonna be tough for a lot of people, because the
Speaker 1: average person is creating a password on their phone or
Speaker 1: their desktop and then using it on their phone or
Speaker 1: desktop like swapping vice versa. Right, And so that's the
Speaker 1: functionality they identified that would make it, you know, push
Speaker 1: people to upgrade. Good question, Joe, thanks a lot, all right,
Speaker 1: Speaking of passwords, Netflix is beginning to crack down on
Speaker 1: passwords sharing outside your household. The streamable dot com with
Speaker 1: a big, big story here. They really, they really blew
Speaker 1: the lid off of this one. Netflix subscribers are starting
Speaker 1: to see a screen that says, if you don't live
Speaker 1: with the owner of this account, you need your own
Speaker 1: account to keep watching, and then in order to continue,
Speaker 1: you have to verify the account with an email or
Speaker 1: text code or create a new account with a thirty
Speaker 1: day free trial. Now, if you're friends with the person
Speaker 1: that you are sharing your password with, I mean theoretically,
Speaker 1: you know you would, you would call them up and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I just got a one time password, can you share
Speaker 1: that with me? But Netflix knows that that's going to
Speaker 1: be just annoying enough to push a percentage of people
Speaker 1: into getting their own accounts, because let's be honest, if
Speaker 1: your friends and family are on your account, they're streaming
Speaker 1: at all different times and places, and it may not
Speaker 1: be convenient to call you up and get that code
Speaker 1: from you every single time. Plus it's gonna get annoying. So,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on how many times Netflix pushes this
Speaker 1: out there, you know, is it every time they log
Speaker 1: in and here's how they're doing this, you know, or
Speaker 1: we don't know actually how they're doing it. I'm sure
Speaker 1: they're using some algorithm to figure this out. But the
Speaker 1: easiest would be that I'm in California and let's say
Speaker 1: I share my password theoretically with a family member that
Speaker 1: lives in New Jersey, and so Netflix goes, Okay, we
Speaker 1: see that you're logging in from California, and then we
Speaker 1: just saw this log in from New Jersey from a
Speaker 1: different device.
Speaker 2: Hmm, We're gonna give that person New.
Speaker 1: Jersey a little prompt that says, hey, you gotta aren't paying,
Speaker 1: or you know, get your own password, or get this
Speaker 1: one time thing. That's pretty easy. Now, you might say, well, rich,
Speaker 1: I travel all the time. How are they gonna know
Speaker 1: if I'm traveling again? This is why they use an
Speaker 1: algorithm to kind of figure things out. They notice that
Speaker 1: your iPad primarily checks Netflix in California, but then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden it travels to Colorado and their algorithm
Speaker 1: allows for that. Or they give you that one time
Speaker 1: code and you get it to your phone and your
Speaker 1: phone's right nearby and you pop it in and says.
Speaker 2: Okay, just making sure. So they're gonna do this.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a test, and they're gonna try
Speaker 1: this in various ways. But the reality is it's coming.
Speaker 1: It's been a long time coming. Netflix has been very
Speaker 1: generous with password sharing, and clearly they've gotten to that
Speaker 1: point again that little vice gript where they're just just turning.
Speaker 2: It a little bit, a little bit, just squeeze a little.
Speaker 1: Bit, and look, we're gonna see this as a theme
Speaker 1: over and over with these companies. They have been very
Speaker 1: generous in sharing and letting people do this as they grow.
Speaker 1: But as these companies get bigger and they say, look,
Speaker 1: you know what, you know, it used to be novel
Speaker 1: that you had a Netflix account, but now it's not
Speaker 1: so novel, Like this is pretty much the way of
Speaker 1: the future.
Speaker 2: And so it was nice that you share it with.
Speaker 1: Your mom and your grandma and your sister and your
Speaker 1: you know, your cousin and also your roommate from college.
Speaker 2: But at this point they got.
Speaker 1: To pay, Like it's maybe they were watching it for
Speaker 1: Queen's Gambit at one point, or like one show that
Speaker 1: was popular, and you know, now it's like there, this
Speaker 1: is an entirety of their streaming consumption, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: they can pay the eight ninety nine to get their
Speaker 1: own their own account, or the thirteen ninety nine or
Speaker 1: in my case, seventeen ninety nine premium plan that I
Speaker 1: pay for which gets you four K, so which I
Speaker 1: probably don't need. But anyway, be aware if you see
Speaker 1: it right now. According to the streamable, it's only seeing
Speaker 1: the people are only seeing the test on TV devices,
Speaker 1: so that could be part of it. But anyway, just
Speaker 1: something to know and something to be aware of it.
Speaker 1: Jerry writes in Hey, Rich, you discussed fall detection on
Speaker 1: the last podcast. I purchased the Apple Watch with this
Speaker 1: feature immediately when it became available in twenty seventeen. My
Speaker 1: wife suffers from extreme tonightis and one of the effects
Speaker 1: of this is dizziness. The bouts of this can come
Speaker 1: on quickly without any warning. At times, the dizziness is
Speaker 1: so bad she just to hold on to a poll
Speaker 1: or table to keep from falling O. The feature has
Speaker 1: interceded two times after my wife fell while walking the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: One time she was unconscious, the other time she was
Speaker 1: severely dazed. Thankfully, a neighbor came out and saw my
Speaker 1: wife both times after not receiving a response from her.
Speaker 1: The neighbor is an Apple Watch is an Apple user
Speaker 1: and realized what was occurring and let the watch complete
Speaker 1: its task. It contacted our local nine one one and
Speaker 1: they dispatched rescue squad to her location. It also contacted
Speaker 1: me with a text message. This occurred within seven minutes
Speaker 1: of her fall, and the EMTs were on scene within
Speaker 1: fifteen Amazing. The app you discussed it was the best
Speaker 1: by app seems to add a couple of layers to
Speaker 1: this process, which I feel would delay the responses. Plus,
Speaker 1: why pay for something that came with the investment you've
Speaker 1: already made for Apple devices. You are correct, besides crash
Speaker 1: detection with Google Pixel, I am a longtime pixel slash
Speaker 1: Nexus user. We need fall detection of the caliber that
Speaker 1: Apple offers. Have a great day, Stay safe, Jerry. Yeah, Jerry, Well,
Speaker 1: I hate to hear that your wife suffers from this,
Speaker 1: but I'm glad she's okay, And it is scary that
Speaker 1: that happens.
Speaker 2: If you didn't listen to the podcast.
Speaker 1: What Jerry's referring to is I was on a run
Speaker 1: and I tripped, and it was basically one of those
Speaker 1: trips that if I landed on the ground, it would
Speaker 1: have been bad, and yeah, the Apple Watch hopefully would
Speaker 1: have sprung into action. I was with my son and
Speaker 1: he was referring to the fact that I was talking
Speaker 1: about this best spy app they have now called Lively
Speaker 1: that taps into the API, the API that Apple Watch
Speaker 1: has written for other companies to allow them to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the fault detection as well. I was not
Speaker 1: aware that Apple had done that, which is great, and
Speaker 1: so Jerry, I agree. I think that it does add
Speaker 1: a different layer to things, and I would agree with that.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I.
Speaker 1: Still think it's good to have options, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: that that Best Buy solution, you know, even though they're
Speaker 1: doing a thing where I guess they use an agent
Speaker 1: to contact you first to make sure you're okay. Maybe
Speaker 1: there's an option inside the app to go directly to
Speaker 1: nine will one.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I haven't tested that app, so I don't really know.
Speaker 1: It's brand new, but I agree. I mean, time is
Speaker 1: of the essence in these situations. So yeah, having that
Speaker 1: Apple Watch native support is probably the best. But I
Speaker 1: would assume that these companies are pretty smart and they
Speaker 1: think about that and they say, you know, maybe they're
Speaker 1: calling someone I don't know. I mean, I think I
Speaker 1: see both sides of this. I think it's good to
Speaker 1: have options, and you know who knows, maybe someone will
Speaker 1: come up with a smarter way than what Apple does,
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe we'll come up with the way
Speaker 1: where you you know, as soon as you start a workout,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like on guard and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: if we if we notice a fall, we're going to
Speaker 1: contact immediately.
Speaker 2: We're not even gonna wait that sixty seconds.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, but I think that it's good
Speaker 1: to have options. I think it's good that we have
Speaker 1: systems like this, and I think they're only going to
Speaker 1: get better. I mean, like you said, it first became
Speaker 1: available in twenty seventeen, which sounds like a long time.
Speaker 1: At this point, it's four years. I can't believe it's
Speaker 1: been that long. But people are still learning about it.
Speaker 1: And with the crash detection on the Google Pixel, you know,
Speaker 1: it's something that not everyone knows. And I called for
Speaker 1: Samsung to do something similar on their phone, and I
Speaker 1: call for Fitbit to do something similar on their watches.
Speaker 1: So we need more and more of this stuff, and
Speaker 1: I think it's going to happen more, more and more.
Speaker 1: But again, in some aspects, we're very much just at
Speaker 1: the beginning of all of this, and so I love
Speaker 1: that we have these options. I think Best Buy is
Speaker 1: just one more option to have. And I'm glad that
Speaker 1: this has come into handy with your wife twice.
Speaker 2: I hope it.
Speaker 1: Doesn't have to work again, but sounds like it's an
Speaker 1: ongoing thing, and it's good that she has this Apple
Speaker 1: Watch and in your case, it's a great thing, and
Speaker 1: you know anyway, so I'm glad that you like the idea.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you like the Apple Watch if it's working
Speaker 1: for you to stick with it. But again, I like
Speaker 1: the idea that we have more options for people, and
Speaker 1: I hope that the options are even more generous in
Speaker 1: the future. And just we get we see more and
Speaker 1: more of these and no matter what you're using, whether
Speaker 1: you're just carrying a phone or a watch, or even
Speaker 1: in cars, we're seeing.
Speaker 2: More crash detection.
Speaker 1: So it's a really good thing that tet technology is
Speaker 1: enabling this stuff. All right, let's talk about Twitter. This
Speaker 1: is kind of a small story, but it's interesting and Twitter.
Speaker 1: The number one complaint I see on Twitter is you know,
Speaker 1: the tech folks talk about Twitter compression and even on Instagram,
Speaker 1: same thing. It's like, ah, compressed my video, It compressed
Speaker 1: my picture and it looks like garbage. And so often
Speaker 1: tech reviewers are sharing pictures from new phones and stuff,
Speaker 1: new cameras on there, and you just can't get an
Speaker 1: idea of how good it is. Because Twitter takes your
Speaker 1: image and it compresses it down so that it's cheap
Speaker 1: for them to store it and it's less expensive to
Speaker 1: send out, and you know, they can send it out quicker.
Speaker 1: Maybe they keep the original somewhere I don't know, probably,
Speaker 1: but when they're serving it up to you on Twitter
Speaker 1: on your timeline, they're not serving up a high quality,
Speaker 1: high resolution picture because you know, that's cost too much
Speaker 1: money over and over to send it out to so
Speaker 1: many people. So Twitter for iOS is testing a new
Speaker 1: design and four K support. This is according to nine
Speaker 1: to five MAC.
Speaker 2: So two things.
Speaker 1: Number one, when you look at pictures in the timeline,
Speaker 1: they're no longer going to crop them.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: There was some controversy about how Twitter was applying cropping
Speaker 1: to pictures and apparently their computers were not doing the
Speaker 1: best job at that, and now they're going to show
Speaker 1: the entire image and so now that's going to be
Speaker 1: the number one change. The other change is that they're
Speaker 1: testing four K image uploads, which means when you look
Speaker 1: at these pictures, they're going to have a better resolution
Speaker 1: than ever before, which means you know, if you're looking
Speaker 1: at details on things, you can zoom in and see them.
Speaker 1: So when you're sharing pictures on Twitter, you should be
Speaker 1: aware of this because you know, often when we share pictures,
Speaker 1: there could be some personal information lurking in those pictures
Speaker 1: if you zoomed in, and so just be aware that, yeah,
Speaker 1: people might be able to see more in your pictures
Speaker 1: than ever before. And on the flip side, it's a
Speaker 1: cool thing because if you're sharing a beautiful picture of
Speaker 1: a beach or you know, for me, I would share
Speaker 1: a picture of like a you know, some kind of
Speaker 1: image from a new smartphone, it's cool that you can
Speaker 1: zoom in and see just how clear that image is.
Speaker 1: So if you want, if you're in this test, this
Speaker 1: is on Iowa only, you can go into Twitter settings,
Speaker 1: then in data usage, choose the high quality option. Now
Speaker 1: there is a high quality option already in those Twitter settings,
Speaker 1: but unless you specifically see the word four K, you're
Speaker 1: not part of that test. You can you can always
Speaker 1: choose between high quality and kind of basic, but now
Speaker 1: it will specifically say four K. If you see that
Speaker 1: in your settings, then you are part of the test
Speaker 1: and you'll see four K images, which I think is
Speaker 1: really cool. The other thing is that this is only
Speaker 1: images right now, nothing about video. So maybe four K
Speaker 1: video will come along in the future, but right now,
Speaker 1: this is just for images. And another note, how wild
Speaker 1: is it that we've come so long with Twitter? I
Speaker 1: remember the days when Twitter did not even support images.
Speaker 1: Used to use a service, a third party service to
Speaker 1: upload your picture. It was like called twit pick or
Speaker 1: all these other ones where you'd actually upload your picture
Speaker 1: there and then you would send out a link to
Speaker 1: that picture on Twitter. And so we've come a long way.
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Next question from Let's see car Let's see who is
Speaker 1: this from? This is from Carol uh Dear Rich. Is
Speaker 1: this just a come on to get us to give
Speaker 1: Google information? Or has someone really compromised my passwords? I
Speaker 1: change them constantly for this reason, and I do not
Speaker 1: trust the people at Google to give them any access
Speaker 1: to any of my passwords. Have you seen this before
Speaker 1: and what would you do about it? I'm a seventy
Speaker 1: eight year old grandma. I'm a target for scam. Sorry
Speaker 1: to bother you. But I thought maybe others might have
Speaker 1: gotten this email as well. I would appreciate any help. Sincerely,
Speaker 1: Carol in Chesterfield, Missouri, and she sent along an email
Speaker 1: that says subject take action to secure your compromise passwords.
Speaker 2: It says Google has.
Speaker 1: Found some of your passwords online. Anyone who finds them
Speaker 1: can access your accounts. Your Google account is still secure.
Speaker 1: This leak came from somewhere else on the web. You
Speaker 1: can secure your saved passwords now using password manager take
Speaker 1: action and smartly. They also give a direct link that
Speaker 1: says you can also go directly to my account Google
Speaker 1: dot com slash security check up. And this kind of
Speaker 1: goes into what I was speaking about earlier about Google
Speaker 1: storing your passwords. And I'll give you an example of
Speaker 1: this that actually came in handy.
Speaker 2: So my mom a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Was like, I can't find my password to my work email.
Speaker 1: And I said, oh, I bet you. I stored it
Speaker 1: in Google Chrome for you because I don't, like I said,
Speaker 1: I don't use a separate password manager for her. Maybe
Speaker 1: I didn't say that, but I use I do store
Speaker 1: some of her passwords in Google Chrome, and so I said,
Speaker 1: go into Chrome press the three little dots, then press settings,
Speaker 1: then go to autofill and click passwords, and you'll see
Speaker 1: a list of.
Speaker 2: A whole bunch of accounts.
Speaker 1: And she said, oh, yeah, I do see my account there,
Speaker 1: but all I see your little dots. And I said, oh,
Speaker 1: pressed the little icon that looks like an eye, and
Speaker 1: you will have to type in your password to reveal that.
Speaker 1: And once you reveal that, boom, there is your password.
Speaker 1: And I said, press the copy password button and you
Speaker 1: can copy and paste that into the website. She said, Oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, you're a genius. She said, I didn't even
Speaker 1: know that Google saves my passwords. And you may not
Speaker 1: know this either, but you'll you will notice if you
Speaker 1: log into a website and Google sometimes says, hey, would
Speaker 1: you like us to save this password? And sometimes it
Speaker 1: happens so fast you might not even notice it. And Carol,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what happens here. You logged into a website
Speaker 1: and that little prompt came up. They said would you
Speaker 1: like us to save your password? And you said yes,
Speaker 1: And now these passwords are stored in Google. On Chrome
Speaker 1: or Google, you can go to passwords. I think you
Speaker 1: can go to passwords dot Google dot com to also
Speaker 1: see them. And what they're doing is they're checking those
Speaker 1: passwords against open databases that they find on the web
Speaker 1: with exposed passwords, and if they find one of your
Speaker 1: passwords on there, they're going to send you this alert.
Speaker 1: So this is not a scam. It's actually real. And
Speaker 1: in fact, because they found this, I would I would
Speaker 1: go in and look at those passwords and see which
Speaker 1: ones are compromised and I would change those. So I
Speaker 1: would go to passwords dot Google dot com and check
Speaker 1: and see what passwords are. If you go to Google
Speaker 1: password check up, it will tell you which ones are
Speaker 1: compromised and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something that you should do. Oops. So anyway, that
Speaker 2: is not a scam. It's real. It's legit.
Speaker 1: And I know you don't trust Google with your passwords,
Speaker 1: but honestly, Carol, I would trust them more than a
Speaker 1: lot of people with my passwords, better than having them
Speaker 1: out in the open web, which it sounds like one
Speaker 1: of your passwords made it there. How does a password
Speaker 1: make it to the open Web. Well, a site gets compromised,
Speaker 1: and so what happens is when a site gets hacked,
Speaker 1: all those passwords from that website in many cases are
Speaker 1: exposed on the open Web, and what happens is you
Speaker 1: get those passwords out there and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: these hackers try them on other websites and with your credentials.
Speaker 1: So you definitely don't want those floating around and you
Speaker 1: definitely don't want to use a compromised password continually.
Speaker 2: So change those passwords. And good question.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're on the lookout for this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so there you have it. All right, one
Speaker 1: more question before we go. Good morning, Rich. I am
Speaker 1: looking for facial recognition technology to support my genealogical research
Speaker 1: identifying old photographs, at least allowing me to group photographs
Speaker 1: of the same person. I heard your interview at Jennifer
Speaker 1: Jones Lee on KFI about animating old photographs, and I
Speaker 1: was wondering if you have any ideas. I've performed several
Speaker 1: searches and have not found anything at a consumer level
Speaker 1: that is affordable. Most are for police and security, which
Speaker 1: does not meet my simple requirements. I am wondering if
Speaker 1: you have any ideas. Thank you for your time, Carl. Well, Carl,
Speaker 1: I do have an idea, and it's so simple it's
Speaker 1: going to be mind boggling and here's the thing. So
Speaker 1: often we always look for these you know, you probably
Speaker 1: typed in facial recognition for photographs or something, and it
Speaker 1: probably came up with all these high end solutions, like
Speaker 1: you said, for law enforcement or whatever.
Speaker 2: But here's the easiest way to do it.
Speaker 1: Just toss these photos into Google Photos and boom, let
Speaker 1: it do its thing and it will find all the
Speaker 1: people in those photos with the same faces. So easy, right,
Speaker 1: And so I love this feature in Google Photos. They
Speaker 1: are the best. Apple also has this feature built into
Speaker 1: their Photos program.
Speaker 2: You can do that.
Speaker 1: I think Google is pretty good, and I think it's
Speaker 1: just a little bit easier, and it's free and it's simple,
Speaker 1: and you can use it on the web. That's what
Speaker 1: I would do. In fact, I'll let you take it
Speaker 1: one step further. When I digitized a bunch of old
Speaker 1: videos from when I was a kid, it will even
Speaker 1: search for faces inside those videos, which is just seriously,
Speaker 1: seriously cool. So back in the day, you know, you
Speaker 1: record a home video that was like two hours long,
Speaker 1: not like today where we take these short clips and
Speaker 1: Google just goes through and all the faces in that
Speaker 1: photo in that video are now also logged. So if
Speaker 1: you have you know Uncle Adam a picture of Uncle
Speaker 1: Adam boom. It will also identify Uncle Adam in the
Speaker 1: videos that you upload. So I think Google Photos is
Speaker 1: the simplest way to do it. I think it's an
Speaker 1: amazing way to do it. It's free, it's cheap, well it's
Speaker 1: free and or cheap depending on how many pictures you have.
Speaker 1: It's simple, it's easy, it's available, and not much that
Speaker 1: you have to do to figure that out.
Speaker 2: So great, great question there, Carl. Good question to answer
Speaker 2: to end the show, because guess what that sound means?
Speaker 2: That is gonna do it for this episode of the show.
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Speaker 2: It is such a cool thing to do. Try it.
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